A chronicle of Issues, Studies, News and other items of interest regarding Mormonism (2006-2013)

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Nephi's Neighbors?

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(Note: This is a very interesting phenomina going on right now. While the bulk of the church is completely unaware of this issue, conservative church scholars are busy redefining an assumption that has been solid since the church's foundation.)

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Nephi's Neighbors: Book of Mormon Peoples and Pre-Columbian

Populations

by Matthew Roper

Critics of Book of Mormon historicity frequently rely on a particular

premise to argue their case: Native Americans are all descended

from Lehi and that non-Lehite ancestry is minor if not altogether

non-existent. To prove this point, these critics turn to statements

made by early LDS leaders as well as to specific verses in the

Book of Mormon itself. These same critics also argue that the idea

that the Lehites may have integrated into a pre-existing culture and

that Lehite genetic material may form a minuscule part of modern

day Amerindian genes is a recent invention by LDS apologists.

In his paper, Roper looks at the evidence and arguments used by

advocates of the Lehi-only ancestry theory. He points out that

statements by early leaders do not exclude the possibility of

significant non-Lehite cultures before, during, and after the Book of

Mormon period. Roper also shows how the idea of a limited geography

Book of Mormon and an extra-Lehite cultural environment is not new at

all, but has been suggested from the earliest days of the Church by a

number of LDS individuals and publications.

Roper concludes that although "the assumption that Native Americans

are of exclusively Israelite heritage" such an assumption is neither

canonical nor revelatory, that many Latter-day Saints have held the belief

in extra-Lehite cultures, and that neither the Book of Mormon nor scriptural

revelations prohibit other nations and cultures from existing in the New

World. Instead "they insist upon a place for Israel in the ancestral heritage